


i shall tie you up in ribbons and call you fair

by josephina_x



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 03:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once-upon-a-time, there were the gifts of men. Sometimes happy, sometimes brutal, sometimes sad. But there were always gifts, until there weren't. Yet appearances can be deceiving, and sometimes the smallest gifts are best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i shall tie you up in ribbons and call you fair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twinsarein](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinsarein/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Gift](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/20939) by twinsarein. 



> Title: i shall tie you up in ribbons and call you fair  
> Author: [josephina_x](http://josephina-x.livejournal.com)  
> Fandom: Smallville  
> Pairing: pre-Clex  
> Rating: PG-13  
> Spoilers: general for early seasons  
> Word count: 1100+  
> Summary: Once-upon-a-time, there were the gifts of men. Sometimes happy, sometimes brutal, sometimes sad. But there were always gifts, until there weren't. Yet appearances can be deceiving, and sometimes the smallest gifts are best.  
> Warnings: Un-beta'd.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.  
> Comments: Yes, please! :)  
> Author's Note: For the [clexmas 2013 Spring Fling Remix Challenge](http://clexmas.livejournal.com/73820.html)! This is a "remix" of [twinsarein's Gift](http://twinsarein.livejournal.com/237147.html), about which she says: "[I had such a hard time keeping this story Gen - it practically screams to be clexified - but anything someone wants to create from it is fine.](http://clexmas.livejournal.com/74443.html#cutid1)" This is a more "proper" sort of remix, where I riff off of the original idea in a different way. Still pre-Clex, though.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex stared down at the gigantic, intricately-detailed metal box. It came up to his waist.

He felt a little dizzy as his attention wandered and wavered, as he nearly lost himself staring at the metalwork carvings They looked almost Celtic in design, twisting one into the other into the other...

"Lex. Son," he heard, and started when a hand came down on his shoulder, squeezing hard.

Lionel Luthor, his father, stepped into view at his side.

"...Dad?" Lex felt so confused. What was _he_ doing here? This was _Lex's_ box.

Lionel chuckled. "Yes, son, it is your box. Don't you recognize it?"

...Now that he had mentioned it, it did look a little like the St. George box that he'd given Clark, lined with lead, scored of love.

"You remember, don't you Lex?" Lionel slurred out warmly. With recognition. Approval. "It's meant to hold your weaknesses. All your tears. Everything that causes you pain," Lionel told him, as he reached forward and raised the lid.

Lionel peered inside, and Lex could only stare as he looked down at Clark, lying on his side, bound hand-and-foot and gagged with dirty, greenish rope, twisted and twisted up in Celtic knots and loops and whorls. His wrists were an angry red, and weeping black where it looked like he'd struggled too hard and cut his wrists on the plant matter. He looked almost sick.

His eyes opened slowly, and he stared up at Lex, wide-eyed.

Lionel nodded as if pleased. "You gave him your heart," Lionel said. "You gave him your weakness to keep."

"I gave him my box," Lex said slowly, remembering a necklace and a fall afternoon, once-upon-a-time.

"Yes," said Lionel. "And now it's time to put away childish things," Lionel said, slowly lowering the lid. 

"But..." Lex protested weakly. It was important to have Clark around, wasn't it? To keep him?

"Now, now," Lionel said, as he lowered the lid a little further. "He can't keep you safe," Lionel told him, glancing up at Lex, "but you can keep him safe, can't you? And then you'll be safe, too. Safe from everything."

Lionel's grin was wide and white and large.

Clark struggled weakly, twisting in place within his bonds but largely immobile in the bottom of the cramped, metal box.

Lex couldn't move.

 _I can keep him this way,_ the thought came to him, bringing an odd sort of numbness with it. _I can keep him, and he will never leave._

Lionel chuckled, and dropped the lid into place with a final sort of sound on Clark's wide, wide eyes and pleading, desperate gaze.

"Go on," Lionel said, handing Lex a large iron padlock.

Lex took the padlock from his father's hands.

He stepped forward.

He heard muffled cries coming from Clark. ...No, from the box. Where was Clark?

Lionel flipped the metal plate down over the loop of metal. Lex slipped the lock into the loop.

He pushed the locking mechanism closed.

The sound of the cries immediately cut off.

Lionel patted him on the back. "You did well, son."

Lex smiled.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Clark woke up screaming.

Lex blinked his eyes open.

"Bad dream?" he asked, curling fingers into Clark's hair.

Clark nodded, teary-eyed, and rolled over in bed. He cuddled up next to Lex.

Lex smiled and wrapped his arms around his not-brother once-upon-a-time.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"What is it with you and braids?" Clark asked him, once-and-once-again.

"Hush," Lex told him, deftly tugging a lock over and through and finally into place, tying off the ribbon, finshing the pattern. "There," he said.

"I'm keeping you safe," he said.

"Sure you are," said Clark, rolling his eyes.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, they were lovers, and Clark let Lex braid his hair.

Once-upon-a-time, they were step-brothers, and hid and stole and cheated their way into a forbidden love.

Once-upon-a-time, Lex decided that Clark would never leave, and he sold his soul to Satan himself for the privilege of it.

Once-upon-a-time...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, there was a bridge, and a car, and a boy, and another boy, only older.

There was a box, and it was a gift.

There was another box, and it was a gift, too.

Lex gave Clark the first box to be given away, but Clark made a box for Lex in return.

Lex never regretted letting his heart be locked up in it.

Once-upon-a-time...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, there was a dream, and a war, and no-one survived it.

Lex died, and the dead don't rise again. Everybody knows that. Life isn't a fairy tale, after all.

Clark put Lex in a box, and wept tears.

No-one had ever told Clark that the tears are supposed to go inside the box, never to be seen again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, Lex decided she wanted to go out for a dance. They didn't have dances in her city. Nor music, nor smiles. There was no joy there. (Not for her, at any rate. It made her all so very weary of it all.)

She had a hole in her chest where her heart should be, but when had a girl such as she ever let a silly little thing like _that_ stop her from having a good time?

And so she put on her simplest pale blue gown for catching a gentleman's eye, and her finest black boots for stomping a braggart's toes.

She braided ribbons in her hair, and put a torq about her neck, and took the minstrel's journey in the back of a straw cart out of the wide, wild city and down to a place called Smallville.

She danced, and danced, and burned and danced, red hair and blue eyes and a soft, too-innocent smile.

She met a fey man there, with a sharp, wicked smile, and fangs for teeth. But at least he was real. He was more real than anything else in the whole wide world had ever been for her.

They danced and danced together, and she found her heart in the most unlikely of places.

Her life was blood and death, and her heart was hers at long last, and she loved her man dearly for it.

The world burned, but only for them.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, there were no gifts, only tired, old men. One had a tattered red cape, the other a ring he'd never quite found the strength to be able to give away.

One day, the man gave up his ring, and the other saw this and wished to follow his example in turn. But he could not.

Finally, one day, he lost what little remained, and was happy for it.

His cape was never found. But their smiles were.

They lived happily-ever-after, as sometimes men are wont to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once-upon-a-time, there was an ending, and a beginning, and a rebirth and a death made anew. Once-upon-a-time, two men were happy and, by the grace of the gods and fate, someday they would be again. Some day.

Some days, but not all.

But what is all this, in the face of true love?

For what is happiness without sadness, and love without hatred?

Dust in the wind, and the cycle repeats over and over again until the end of time, and for some time after that.

And those two dangerous, wonderful, too-loving souls are glad for it.

~*~*~*~*~*~


End file.
